01 December 2021
Jeremiah Harrison
Sports Reporter
Year in year out the game of football’s most prestigious accolade passes with controversies and outcries from fans and footballers alike.
The current recognition of the best world football player carried with it the same ‘foul’, cheated.
Many fans expressed that the Argentina born star Lionel Messi did not deserve to win the award.
Messi scooped the 2021 Men’s Ballon d’Or leaving his competitors sprawling on the green grass.
Messi won with 613 points, finishing 33 ahead of Robert Lewandowski, who many fans expected will be the winners this year.
Lewandowski settled for in second place at a ceremony held last Monday evening in Paris in France.
This is the 7th time Messi has won this accolade, and he is the only player to have won this award seven times in his football career.
Messi won in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019 and 2021 followed by Cristiano Ronaldo with five. Three players have won the award three times each: Johan Cruyff, Michel Platini, and Marco van Basten.
With seven awards each, Dutch, German, Argentine and Portuguese players have won the most Ballons d’Or.
This year’s Ballon D’Or final results was highly criticised by footballers and coaches who thought that Messi didn’t deserve the award.
Liverpool Football club coach was in shock with the results where Mohammed Salah was placed in 7th position.
Jurgen Klopp felt that Mo Salah did better and he deserved a better postion.
He said “I was surprised with his (Mo Salah’s) position, to be honest.”
“I’m not 100% sure what it is to be honest. If you don’t give it to Robert Lewandowski now it’s difficult to give him at all. But Mo should have been higher up, definitely. You can always give it to Messi for his career.”
Klopp showed disatisfaction with the final results of the awards.
Toni Kroos, a Germany and Real Madrid midfielder did not agree with the decision that Messi took the award home. This was supported by his statement.
“Lionel Messi winning Ballon d’Or was “absolutely not deserved”, said Toni Kroos.
Thomas Tuchel Chelsea coach had a lot to say concerning the awards.
He said “It’s a nice award because it’s a team effort.”
“For me, not so much because I have huge doubts about individual awards in this game because this game is very complex, related to luck. It’s a team effort. Not one single player can win a game of football.”
“My players were surprised that [Robert] Lewandowski didn’t win last year. It’s an election. In the end, we come from sports, we accept, and go on.”
At the same event, Chelsea have been named 2021 Club of the Year for having the most players nominated for the Men’s Ballon D’Or and these include Ng’olo Kante, Mason Mount, Cesar Azpilicueta and Jorginho.
This came after Chelsea won the UEFA Champions league, the UEFA Super Cup and their good performance currently in the English Premier League, they are on top of the league table in England.
The Ballon d’Or (“Golden Ball”) is an annual football award presented by French news magazine France Football that is one of the oldest and generally regarded as the most prestigious individual award for football players.
It has been awarded since 1956, although between 2010 and 2015, an agreement was made with FIFA, and the award was temporarily merged with the FIFA World Player of the Year (founded in 1991) and known as the FIFA Ballon d’Or.
However, the partnership ended in 2016, and the award reverted to the Ballon d’Or, while FIFA also reverted to its own separate annual award The Best FIFA Men’s Player.
The recipients of the joint FIFA Ballon d’Or are considered as winners by both award organisations.
George Weah is the first African to have won the award, he is the current president for Liberia.
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